Like other equipment companies, Kiln-Direct has faced the challenge of providing adequate service to an ever-increasing number of older systems still in operation. This is a three-folded problem most equipment companies face. First, providing daily support when a customer calls in needing help or requires on-site/in-person assistance. Second, as parts (electrical/control/mechanical) are discontinued from vendors Kiln-direct must find new solutions, especially on control systems and software. Third, Kiln-Direct decided through its Sustainable Support principle to make new product improvements available to upgrade older kilns whenever possible.
“I think it’s a challenge all equipment manufacturers face,” said Niels Jorgensen, president of the North Carolina-based company. “It was Milton Friedman who said, ‘There’s no such thing as a free lunch.’ He meant there is a cost to everything, even soft services like phone support, and someone is paying for it. In the beginning sales/profit from new kilns essentially subsidized service for existing customers. With each passing year more and more kilns require service and support, making it economically untenable to continue that model. This really became apparent in 2009 after the Great Recession when new kiln sales fell 60-70% while support needs remained the same for existing customers.”
Jorgensen cautioned, “Many kiln and pallet treatment companies have gone out of business when new sales could not support service requirements. You want a vendor who will be here for the long run, and we are working to establish an approach that will be here decades after the sale.”
With more than 1,000 kilns in operation, Kiln-Direct faced these challenges by developing better tools for servicing and maintaining kilns. The first tools were detailed pictorial maintenance manuals and lately introducing training and maintenance videos. Through all this Kiln-Direct also focused on making longer lasting components, which resulted in a reduction of spare parts sales of certain parts even though there are more kilns in operation.
“We had to change our mindset and think more proactively,” commented Jorgensen. Kiln-Direct took a step forward in 2014 by adding technology for kiln controls to automatically send emails with error codes to kiln operators as well as Kiln-Direct support staff. The following year, the company introduced its first maintenance videos to teach customers how to clean burners and calibrate them among other maintenance procedures. Updated pictorial maintenance and troubleshooting manuals were added a year later, and in 2017 it added videos to help train new operators at customer locations. Last year Kiln-Direct introduced touch screen controls with built-in error codes and troubleshooting suggestions right there on the kiln controller.
Jorgensen suggested, “Upgrading the controls on your kiln is fairly inexpensive and can help improve uptime response, remote monitoring and diagnostics and more. We can even upgrade our first-generation kilns with these controls. Customers should really consider this simple upgrade to improve performance.”
Working alongside these new control options, technical assistance via phone is critical. This approach can get a customer’s kiln up and running faster and at much lower cost than hiring a local electrician or even having a Kiln-Direct technician come on-site.
Kiln-Direct can send a web link of a video to a cell phone of a customer employee. “That’s a lot faster,” noted Jorgensen. The customer employee can refer to the video, start and stop it as needed, as he is servicing or adjusting the kiln. Using the videos together with the pictorial maintenance manual is much more efficient and effective than trying to verbally describe or explain a process via phone, he noted. Another option for providing off-site technical assistance is to conduct online meetings via the Internet with a customer’s staff. Kiln-Direct technicians have access to the data for the customer’s kiln and can guide them through a process while they are at the kiln.
In the past, new kiln sales paid for 100% of the cost of service operations for existing customers. Actually, for a number of years the profit from firewood kilns subsidized support for pallet kiln customers. By focusing on our Sustainable Support principle, that figure has been reduced to a little more than 50%. “We’ve moved the needle a lot,” reflected Jorgensen, toward making service operations self-sustaining, which is the ONLY way to ensure current customers will have a place to call for assistance. He added, “We must think ahead and create a sustainable support structure that is mutually beneficial to the operator and the manufacturer.”
“It has been a long journey to develop these tools that efficiently and cost effectively assist kiln operations,” said Jorgensen, “and our first pallet kilns are still operational.”
Editor’s Note: For more information on Kiln-Direct, visit www.kiln-direct.com, call 910-259-9794 or email sales@kiln-direct.com..
